Pundits keep telling us that Donald Trump is a genius at manipulating media and the public but that’s pure unadulterated bullshit. Trump manipulates and motivates his base and nothing else, and he does it by lying and intimidating those who are acting from a position of honesty. The fact is that Trump is only a master of manipulating a rather ignorant base that actually wants to believe the nonsense he spreads at their feet.
The result of this coordination of false belief is that we now hear broadcasters and party hacks telling us that the Democrats are split while the Republicans are solidified behind one glorious leader. This concept is just the result of a crazed egomaniac speaking to an ignorant base and a terrified Senate that sees the demographics of the country changing and their grasp on power disappearing, possibly forever. That loss of power predicts the loss of their highly paid jobs which means most of them will have to go back to chasing ambulances, hauling garbage, or their job at the mill, none of which actually equipped them for the job they got in the Congress.
We are told that 93 or 94% of the GOP support Trump and his behavior. That’s what the polls tell us but like most polling, it all depends on how the questions are asked. What they are really supporting is not Trump but the cultural war he’s fighting, his ability to win and his freedom to take harsh or even criminal actions to achieve his goals. They understand that it’s about power and his ability to protect them from the raging forces that would take that power from them. They don’t care what he says or does. Their support for him doesn’t take what he says or does into consideration. It’s all about power, so nothing matters as long as he enables them to keep that power.
So right now the entire GOP is waving their banner of hate and proclaiming that the other party is falling apart when what is actually happening is what happened four years ago when there were 16 GOP candidates. Unfortunately that resulted in a Trump presidency, which ended up solidifying the GOP behind the worst President in the history of the nation.
What the Democrats are doing now is going through the process of picking a leader. The Republicans did that three and a half years ago and they obviously made a huge mistake. But now it’s the Democrats turn and the process can be divisive.
In 2016 when Bernie and Hillary were duking it out to see who would run on the Democratic ticket, they had no one to run against because the GOP was doing the same thing with all 16 candidates. Now the Dems have a clear and present target. Donald Trump is the only one on the other side and what Tom Steyer said at the debate the other night is spot on. They have to stop quibbling among themselves and all go after Trump. The problem with this Democratic field at a debate is that they all believe in the same things; yes, to different degrees but they are all for healthcare, higher wages, gun control etc., etc. That leaves them with the problem that the only things they have to squabble about are insignificant trivia and that makes them all look insignificant. What this party needs now is an old fashioned political backroom meeting where they decide who’s going to run for President, who’s gong to be the VP, who is going to stay in the Senate or House and who’s going to go to the cabinet. Then they can all settle down to beat Trump. But while they’re dong that, they also have to identify and stop some of the bad behavior, especially by Bernie and his people.
The nonsense the other night by Rashida Tlaib and the other three women who stunk up the stage and carried on about Hillary and whether or no to boo her was asinine. Who, at this point, gives a damn about Hillary? And then, after Mike Bloomberg announced for the umpteenth time that if he didn’t win he would support the candidate that did, a Bernie campaign official announced that Bernie would not take any money from a rich guy like Bloomberg. What is wrong with this clown? What is wrong with Benie? Money wins elections. Trump is hauling in millions with both hands for the big one. Whoever wins the Democratic primary will need every buck he can get to help beat the Big Liar. The fact is that there are a lot of rich people who have the proper mindset, who aren’t in it to buy favors or force their agenda on the people. Only an idiot wouldn’t use their money. If Bernie is too stupid not to use all the money he can get, he is too stupid to represent me and way too stupid to get my vote in the primary, simply because he isn’t using every available asset to beat the worst President in the history of the nation.
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An accusation has surfaced against Mike Bloomberg, sponsored by a member of the Bernie camp. In it, Bloomberg is seen and heard espousing New York city’s Stop & Frisk laws while stating the age group involved in most crime in NYC at that time, and citing that most police resources were located in minority communities because that’s where most crime was taking place.
The last two items are statistically correct, but the controversy arises when we look for a way to balance the difference between the solution to both the crimes and the violation of civil rights.
It has always seemed to this writer that the solution to high crime statistics can be most effectively achieved not by militaristic police policies, which strive to prevent crimes before they happen or solve them after they have, but the spending of targeted money, which is the solution to the real, underlying problem, poverty. But first it’s important to differentiate between violent crime, which is essentially carried out because of a need for money and white-collar crime, which is pursued to solve problems of greed, envy and power. We are speaking here of violent crime instigated by lack of money for the essentials of living. Eliminate poverty and you remove the motivation for most criminal activity.
It is statistically correct to state that there is less violent crime among the rich than among minority populations, because the rich don’t need the funding that leads the poor to commit criminal acts. So the whole violent crime problem, if you follow the trail back to its inception, is pretty much caused by a lack of education, child-care and opportunity in the ghetto. That’s where the money should be spent, that’s where the resources should be concentrated. If you present the opportunity to grow, you remove the motivation for involvement in crime because you put the potential criminal in a position to earn without endangering his life or freedom. Let everyone participate in the American dream and you change the motivation for crime dramatically.
But to get back to the original situation; nearly all of the Democratic candidates have some kind of black skeleton in their closets. Buttigieg has his black police chief in South Bend; Klobachar has some case she prosecuted, long ago, that just won’t go away. Even Bernie has a piece of legislation he signed off on that is not favorable to blacks. But you stack them up against Donald Trump, the racist and bigot whose birth date is the only thing that keeps him from being a slave owner, and the candidates all look like brothers and sisters.
Let’s not confuse the facts folks. There is only one candidate that the black community will vote for in this election and it’s whoever the Democratic Party nominates. Unlike the Bernie backers in 2016, they are way too smart and way too cynical to stay away from the polls or vote Liberal Party just to spite whoever wins the nomination. The black vote is with us because they know who will support them, let’s give them all the support we can to help them accomplish their goals.